Changing permission issue

sungjoo.kim · 11-05-2008, 07:09 PM

Hello All,

I have a problem in modifying and copying one file.
First I see following permission for the file.

--> ls -l Testlib
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9045 Apr 12 2007 Testlib

Then I tried,

--> chmod 777 Testlib
chmod: changing permissions of 'Testlib': Read-only file system

I also tried 'chmod -rw Testlib', but it shows same result.

I am not sure where to look.

Any comments welcome.

i92guboj · 11-05-2008, 07:20 PM

Your filesystem is mounted as read only. You can't change anything on a volume that's mounted ro.

This can happen for many reaons:

you added the "ro" option into the relevant line of your fstab
there was some problem while booting, and you booted on single user mode with / mounted ro
you are trying to change permissions on a media that is r/o by nature (i.e. a cdrom)

sungjoo.kim · 11-06-2008, 03:13 PM

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I had a booting problem and I could get to command prompt using rescue mode in linux cd.

I copied all folders and files except this 'Testlib' file onto my windowXP machine using Winscp to copy them into new HDD.

I am not sure what I can do at this moment. I've gooled my problem but I could not find any problem like mine.

i92guboj · 11-06-2008, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sungjoo.kim

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I had a booting problem and I could get to command prompt using rescue mode in linux cd.

Where does this Testlib directory resides? And what type is the partition?

If it resides into the windows partition, then permissions are not relevant since these partitions will not support linux permissions. If it resides in the linux partition and you booted on single user, then the root partition will be mounted read only as I said above.

In this caes, you will need to boot from a livecd, mount your root partition anywhere and then change the permissions or do whatever from there.